Shadow Minister for Social Justice and Shadow Counsel General Mark Isherwood MS has made a call for the Welsh Government to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into Welsh law within the time remaining in the legislative agenda.
Questioning the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution yesterday, Mr Isherwood, who Chairs the Cross-Party Group on Disability in the Welsh Parliament, referred to Disability Wales’s recently released report ‘Barely Surviving’, which makes reference to the fact that despite its inclusion in the Welsh Government’s Programme for Government, there's still no timeline for incorporation of the UN Convention.
Calling for an update on the situation, Mr Isherwood said:
“The UN Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 9th December 1975, states that all disabled persons have the same rights as other persons and recognises the obstacles created by social institutions and society in general.
“The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted on 13 December 2006 and the UK ratified the Convention in 2009.
“Disability Wales' recently released report, 'Barely Surviving', called, amongst other things, for the Welsh Government to ‘Incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People’. It goes on to state that ‘despite its inclusion in the Programme for Government, there is still no timeline for incorporation of the UN Convention. With limited time remaining in the legislative agenda, the Welsh Government must outline their plan for incorporation’.
“In 2018, the then National Assembly for Wales voted here in favour of a legislative proposal to incorporate the UN Declaration into Welsh law, with Cross-Party support. So, what discussions and legal advice have your Cabinet colleagues sought from you on incorporating the Convention into Welsh Law within the time remaining in the legislative agenda?”
In his response, the Minister said:
“I have been engaged with my colleague the Minister for Social Justice, Jane Hutt, and with other external participants, in a forum really looking at the issue as to how to incorporate this Convention, and also other Conventions, into our legislative and constitutional structure. It's not through a lack of willingness to do it, but it is an incredibly complicated process.
“I'm happy to update in due course, but I can tell him I've been working very, very closely on a very regular basis with the Minister for Social Justice on how we might try to achieve this.”